And The Rest: Friday News Roundup
(Now updated throughout the day.) EA names Def Jam sequel, Transformers gold, MS cans Train Simulator 2.0, Samurai Warriors Xbox announced.
For all the killers and the hundred-dollar-billers, EA has gone and, er, 'spillers-ed' the details on the name of the next Def Jam Vendetta game. Until now, the EA Canada-penned sequel had been operating under a working title, but EA's latest conference call reveals that we're actually looking forward to a game called Def Jam: Fight for New York. You can read all we know about that game (and find some shots) by clicking... here.
Although the prospect of a good game based on one of our childhood favourites is almost unthinkable, Transformers (formerly Transformers Armada) is the real deal - Atari's Melbourne House has done their homework and stuffed in so much robot-related love that even fans of the franchise will probably have to shed their cynicism and embrace it. And the point of this continued promotion of Atari's stompy-robot-'em-up? Well it's gone gold, we'll have you know, and should be out in Europe on May 7th.
Microsoft has confirmed the cancellation of Train Simulator 2.0 for the PC, which Britsoft dev Kuju handed back to the firm for further development last August. This week 3DGamers.com noticed that the game's official site had disappeared, and Microsoft subsequently issued a statement confirming the cancellation. Here's an excerpt (preceded by lots of stuff about continually evaluating its blah). "Microsoft Game Studios has cancelled the Windows-based Train Simulator 2.0. The decision to cancel Train Simulator 2.0 was made some time ago and was based on a long, hard, and difficult look at our business objectives and product offerings. We remain focused on the simulations category with successful, platform-driving franchises, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator," the company said this week.
Samurai Warriors, which EA Partners recently picked up for release in Europe on PS2, is on its way to Xbox according to leash-holder Koei. The Omega Force-developed historical action game will gain some new features on the Xbox, mainly taking advantage of the system's graphical capabilities and adding Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound, and should appear alongside the PS2 version on Koei's E3 stand.